sounddoc
Well-Known Member
Engine failure & un-forecast thunderstorms?!
Not as exciting as it sounds, but they both happened - For you cherokee drivers out there, I would not recommend a forward slip from pattern altitude to a landing with carb heat on + humid conditions. We did this, and when my student idled off the runway, clunk...prop stops. Cranking it proved flooding, and after it restarted, it ran fine the whole way home. I didn't even think of it at the time, but we most likely ran it too rich (high density altitude, high temp (shouldn't have had him use carb heat, but it was an instrument training flight...my bad, not thinking) full mixture and low power setting). This is one of our newer Warriors too, so it wasn't a maintenance issue, just a dumb CFI move. over a grand of hours in PA28 time, and I've never seen this happen before. Lesson learned - don't use carb heat over 20C idling on the ground.
Fast forward to my last flight, a student wanted to fly down to a grass field, we both got the weather, nothing forecast, all good. 3/4 the way down and we had to descend to 3k below a cloud building rather rapidly. We called up a nearby RCO to ask if there had been a change in the forecast...nope, all good according to her, she sounded perplexed at our report. So we landed, turned around, and those little puffy clouds had built into two full fledged thunderstorms. So the hour flight back was 1.5 times that as we circumvented growing cells and moderate to heavy precip. The whole way back she's still navigating using the sectional like a champ! Lesson learned - don't trust the briefer when your inner ADM tells you it's probably time to turn back. Turned into a great lesson on how your options can go from all to none in a short amount of time.
Not bad for a last day, but I would have much preferred it to be as non-eventful as the previous year and a half!
Not as exciting as it sounds, but they both happened - For you cherokee drivers out there, I would not recommend a forward slip from pattern altitude to a landing with carb heat on + humid conditions. We did this, and when my student idled off the runway, clunk...prop stops. Cranking it proved flooding, and after it restarted, it ran fine the whole way home. I didn't even think of it at the time, but we most likely ran it too rich (high density altitude, high temp (shouldn't have had him use carb heat, but it was an instrument training flight...my bad, not thinking) full mixture and low power setting). This is one of our newer Warriors too, so it wasn't a maintenance issue, just a dumb CFI move. over a grand of hours in PA28 time, and I've never seen this happen before. Lesson learned - don't use carb heat over 20C idling on the ground.
Fast forward to my last flight, a student wanted to fly down to a grass field, we both got the weather, nothing forecast, all good. 3/4 the way down and we had to descend to 3k below a cloud building rather rapidly. We called up a nearby RCO to ask if there had been a change in the forecast...nope, all good according to her, she sounded perplexed at our report. So we landed, turned around, and those little puffy clouds had built into two full fledged thunderstorms. So the hour flight back was 1.5 times that as we circumvented growing cells and moderate to heavy precip. The whole way back she's still navigating using the sectional like a champ! Lesson learned - don't trust the briefer when your inner ADM tells you it's probably time to turn back. Turned into a great lesson on how your options can go from all to none in a short amount of time.
Not bad for a last day, but I would have much preferred it to be as non-eventful as the previous year and a half!
